35% water contaminated in Aurangabad taluka

Article courtesy of Ranjana Diggikar | March 6, 2014 | The Times of India | Shared as educational material

Contaminated Water Aurangabad India

AURANGABAD: A recent drinking water quality monitoring report by the health department has revealed that, 23% of water across the nine talukas in the district was found to be contaminated. The highest incidence of contamination was seen in samples from Aurangabad taluka, which was reported to be 35%.

“The administration has issued directions to the gram panchayats concerned to immediately take corrective measures to avoid any trouble on account of contaminated water,” said Zilla Parishad additional district health officer Rajendra Bawiskar.

Bawiskar said, “Reasons for contamination range from irregular chlorination by village gram panchayats, punctured pipelines and improper functioning of water treatment plants. Water samples of many villages located in peri urban areas (villages located near industrial belts) were found contaminated. Water is provided to the villages through various sources such as water supply pipelines, borewells and wells. It is the duty of the authorities responsible to provide pure drinking water.”

The ZP district health officer B T Jamadar said that the health department conducts orthotolidine test (O-test) of water samples of the area found to be infected and if these samples are found to be bacteriologically infected then resampling and monitoring of the source of contamination is recommended.

“Tthe administration also restricts people from drinking water from the borewells which dry up in summer as they have greater chances of having contaminated water,” he explained.

He alleged that the major reason for the taluka recording infected water samples is the punctured pipeline laid from Gangapur water purification plant to Patoda. “The water is supplied by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) through this pipeline. The pipeline has generated multiple breaches and hence water gets infected. This has been brought to the notice of MIDC officials repeatedly but to no avail,” he said. “However, no epidemic of water-borne diseases has been reported. Either the pathogen in the bacteria is weak or the immunity level of people has increased,” he said.

Despite repeated attempts, MIDC officials were not available for comment.